1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a system for automatically dispensing forms from a terminal or housing, such as government forms for automobile registrations, drivers license extensions, hunting and fishing licenses, etc. More particularly, the invention relates to such a system in which the housing contains entirely blank forms, and labels, decals, stickers, hereinafter referred to as stickers, on which the necessary information is subsequently printed depending upon the particular transaction, to eliminate the storage of potentially important forms containing confidential and delicate information, which heretofore was subject to fraud and theft, such as vehicle registration serial numbers, etc.
2. Background Information
Various devices have been developed for the dispensing of forms previously handled in labor intensive government offices, by installation of such devices both at the Government office or at a remote location. Various automatic machines have been proposed and used in the past in various fields particularly banking, postage stamp vending, video tape vending and airline ticket vending. These generally involve sales of articles or money dispensing, or the dispensing of ticket information by an operator hired by a company or government located at the site of the dispenser.
These housings or terminals whether they are located on site or at a remote site, are usually connected to a remote database containing various information pertaining to the particular uses to which the terminal is intended. Examples of such dispensing systems are shown and described in detail in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,567,359 and 4,970,655.
One problem with such systems, and in particular of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,655 is that when used for the dispensing of Government forms such as vehicle registrations, license renewals, etc., it requires that the terminal or housing contain the required forms having preprinted information thereon, and most importantly contain stickers having license identification numbers already printed thereon for subsequent application to the preprinted form. These numbered stickers are quite valuable and can be used by car theft rings to validate vehicle titles and licenses of stolen vehicles. This lends the dispensing system to both theft and fraud on behalf of third parties, as well as by employees of the government and/or company which operates and services the form dispenser.
Thus, the need exists for an improved form dispensing system which will dispense various types of forms, such as vehicle and license registration forms, hunting and fishing licenses, etc., wherein all of the forms within the machine are blank thereby avoiding theft and fraud.